Hoi Polloi at the Ace Hotel

Hoi Polloi At The Ace Hotel

Amuse Magazine

The sense of community that the Ace Hotel, and Hoi Polloi in particular, have brought to Shoreditch isn’t to be sniffed at. As so many of our favourite pubs and dens of inequity are closing down in the area, residents need somewhere to escape from the vanilla stag and hen parties that spill onto the streets. Hoi Polloi brings together the perfect mix of artists, fashion freaks and pop stars.

With its soft lighting, wood paneling, banquet seating and 1970s charm, Pablo and David created a sanctuary for anyone who wants a bit of glamour alongside their gin gimlets when in East London. The menu is resolutely no-nonsense British classics, but the cocktail list is lengthy and imaginative – just the way it should be.

The mood for the venue was set at the pre-opening party they threw six months before the hotel had finished construction, an intimate dinner for 200 of their nearest and dearest, attended by more designers than you could throw a coat hanger at.

Since then, there have been regular Thursday night happenings, which may or may not involve drag queens writhing on table tops, and riotous end of fashion week parties that have drawn everyone from Skepta and A$AP Nast to Christopher Kane and Katy Perry.

Pablo sites this mix of relaxed comfort and high-end glamour, using a recent film screening as the perfect example: “I absolutely loved the Sink the Pink premiere, both for the film and the low key night-in-front-of-big-tv feel.” Basically, a visit to Hoi Polloi is like going round your grandma’s to watch Corrie – except with a gang of wise-cracking transvestites.